Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- transitive verb To damage in reputation; disgrace.
- transitive verb To cause to be doubted or distrusted.
- transitive verb To refuse to believe.
- noun Loss of respect or damage to one's reputation.
- noun Lack or loss of trust or belief; doubt.
- noun Something that brings disgrace or distrust.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Want of credit or good repute; some degree of disgrace or reproach; disesteem: applied to persons or things: as, frauds that bring manufactures into discredit; a transaction much to his discredit.
- noun Want of belief, trust, or confidence; disbelief: as, his story is received with discredit.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The act of discrediting or disbelieving, or the state of being discredited or disbelieved.
- noun Hence, some degree of dishonor or disesteem; ill repute; reproach; -- applied to persons or things.
- transitive verb To refuse credence to; not to accept as true; to disbelieve.
- transitive verb To deprive of credibility; to destroy confidence or trust in; to cause disbelief in the accuracy or authority of.
- transitive verb To deprive of credit or good repute; to bring reproach upon; to make less reputable; to disgrace.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb transitive To
harm the goodreputation of a person; to cause an idea or piece of evidence to seemfalse orunreliable .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb damage the reputation of
- verb cause to be distrusted or disbelieved
- noun the state of being held in low esteem
- verb reject as false; refuse to accept
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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What I'm really seeking to discredit is a specific component of homodoxy exhibited most notably in monotheism but just as present in polytheist and atheist homodoxies.
THE HALLS OF PENTHEUS -- PART FIVE Hal Duncan 2007
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What I'm really seeking to discredit is a specific component of homodoxy exhibited most notably in monotheism but just as present in polytheist and atheist homodoxies.
Archive 2007-04-01 Hal Duncan 2007
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The third thing to her discredit was her living in the land of Canaan, whose inhabitants were known to be harsh and evil.
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The main reason for the discredit, which is world wide, is, I think, to be found in the fact that a congress of representatives is essentially a group of blind men in a vast, unknown world.
Public Opinion Walter Lippmann 1931
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He entertained, he insisted, a high regard for Mrs. Hill, and the only thing he knew to her discredit was the fact that she was Major Hill's wife.
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- I cannot possibly oblige you by not wearing my gown, because I have it made up on purpose to wear it a great deal, & as the discredit will be my own, I feel the less regret.
Jane Austen's Letters To Her Sister Cassandra and Others 1796
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Remember, the first tactic to discredit is to call the opponent insane, or to intimate insanity.
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Remember, the first tactic to discredit is to call the opponent insane, or to intimate insanity.
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Remember, the first tactic to discredit is to call the opponent insane, or to intimate insanity.
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Aside from any other sleaziness in this story, the idea that being gay is a 'discredit' to someone is loathesome to say the list.
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